CopyScopes

Copyscopes are basically a poor man's finder scope or monocular made from the lens assembly of a copy machine.

If you find yourself in possession of one of these lens assemblies, then you can add an eyepiece and create yourself a very economical and surprisingly good finder scope. You can also add your own crosshairs to an eyepiece if you can figure out the focal point of the EP.

                       

...the exploded view with all the sections cut...            ...and the final product.

For this copy scope I used a lens assembly from a trashed copy/FAX/printer. The eyepiece holder and 12.5 mm (0.96") EP were permanently borrowed from my son's Meade 4.5" reflector. (We're upgrading his focuser and scope.) I have not glued these components together yet. The tight fit seems to be more than enough to keep it all together. Application of duct tape works great where needed also. A pipe cutter is superior to a hacksaw if you can afford one!

 

Here's my homemade cross hairs glued in place on a cheesy 0.96" 12.5 mm EP. Good 'nuf for a finderscope. Works tolerably well.
The copy scope below was made with a lens assembly from a salvaged Pitney-Bowes Copy machine (you should have seen me trying to load that sucker into the back of my minivan!). And what a find THAT was...parts galore!

  
                                

...again, the exploded view with all the sections cut...       ...and the final product.

On this one, the eyepiece was eventually replaced with the EP from my son's 4.5" finderscope. It was literally a piece of junk. You couldn't even get it to focus on the moon. Behind the right lens, though, the little EP performs pretty well. This one will live on as the finder on the 4.5" revamp. You can see the brackets for its mount below.

 

I have plenty of extra 2" i.d. aluminum tubing that I use for my focuser drawtubes. I just hacked off a 4" piece and then cut a notch about 3 inches wide right out of the middle down to the thickness of the body wall on one side. Then I took a piece of aluminum angle and mounted the two together by drilling and tapping holes. Drilled and tapped some holes at 120 degrees apart on the remaining "rings and 'Voila!', finderscope bracket! This is how I mounted my larger copy scope on my 16" Tridob.
On the 4.5" reflector we just modified the existing plastic bracket by adding on larger rings with holes drilled and tapped at the traditional 120 degree spacing.